Like all fashion and fabric creations, the plush prototype starts from a pattern. Working from the final character artwork, design decisions and material preferences, the plush toy’s draft sewing pattern is created. The patterns are templates for each different piece of fabric and material that make up the final plush, along with fabrication and sewing instructions.

Depending on the project, we may decide to create an initial rough prototype. This is often made in a plain test material rather than the desired materials, and may not have branding or logos. Our main goal with a rough prototype is to agree on a general stuffed toy animals shape and construction before moving onto the final detailing.

After the plush toy prototype is completed and approved, it’s toy-making time. For anyone who’s familiar with bespoke suit tailoring, plush toy making is a similar process. At a high level, plush manufacturing includes the following steps.

Unsurprisingly, the first part of plush production is ordering all fabrics and materials. Then, the stuffed toy online pattern is used to create a series of cutting dies, which are placed in a press to precisely cut the fabric into the pieces needed to make the toy. Some pieces are also cut by hand using old-fashioned fabric shears.

Most embroidery, printing and detailing is added after the fabric is cut, though in some cases this can also be done prior to cutting. The fabric pieces are stitched together inside out, leaving a small hole at an appropriate location for stuffing to occur. Tags are also added at this stage.

Using the small hole that was left during sewing, the plush toy animals are stuffed until they get the right level of softness or denseness as desired. This commonly includes polyester fill and plastic beanie pellets.